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The Monte Vista Historic District is located slightly north
of downtown San Antonio and is roughly bounded by San Pedro,
Hildebrand, McCullough, Shook and Ashby. The neighborhood
is characterized by distinguished residential architecture from
the early 20th century including Classical Revival, Tudor,
Spanish Eclectic, Queen Anne, and Craftsman style houses.
During San Antonio’s "Gilded Age," from approximately 1890 to
1930, several opulent suburbs developed including Monte Vista.
The variety of architectural styles within the area reflects a
booming period in San Antonio’s history before the Great
Depression. Leading San Antonio architects such as Alfred Giles,
Harvey Young, James Riely Gordon, and Atlee B. Ayres designed
palatial homes in Monte Vista for some of San Antonio’s leading
citizens in the 1910s. The eight-story Bushnell Apartments
on Shook Avenue provided luxury living for several decades, and
many Texas cattle baron constructed estates within the
neighborhood along Kings Highway. Other streets included more
modest dwellings, and the resulting variety of housing stock was
at least partially responsible for the resilience of Monte Vista
during the latter part of the twentieth century.
Facing deterioration and developmental intrusion, neighborhood
residents formed the Monte Vista Historical Association in 1973
to preserve the community. Monte Vista was designated a
local historic district in 1975, and the historical association
sought "to encourage the preservation of the distinctive
heritage of the Monte Vista area; to keep the physical identity
of this late nineteenth-early twentieth century district intact;
and to educate the public, especially the youth, with the
knowledge of our inherited neighborhood values which contribute
to a wholesome urban environment." The Monte Vista
neighborhood was designated a National Register Historic
District in 1998.
Excerpted from Donald E. Everett, "Monte Vista: The Gilded Age
of an Historic District, 1890-1930" (Supplement, North San
Antonio Times, January 29, 1988). Available from the Monte Vista
Historical Association website at
www.montevista-sa.org.
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